A Valuable Gift to Yerevan from Kunito Nagaoka

A Japanese art critic Professor Kunito Nagaoka presented the city hall of Yerevan with the replicas of the city’s most significant symbols. According to the announcement of the city hall, Professor Kunito Nagaoka presented the replica of the inscription of Armenian King Argishti telling about the foundation of the Erebuni fortress.

The replica was created with the Japanese and Chinese printing technique called Taku-Hon. This technique implies the “rubbing” of a large and thin piece of paper into the stone to create its imprint on the paper.

The paper is moisturized, applied to the stone, and then gently rubbed into the ornamentations on it with a soft brush. After the paper dries out, the imprint of the ornamentations is defined with ink. The khachkar (cross-stone) presented several years ago by Nagaoka was created using the same technique.

“I was strongly impressed by the spiritual traditions of Armenians. I want to return the khachkars to the world culture, show their wealth and subtlety,” remarked Professor Kunito Nagaoka.

The works of the Japanese art critic will be presented on exhibitions that will be held throughout the world for the 2800th anniversary of the foundation of Yerevan.